When it comes to the appreciation of good writing, you have to try pretty hard to find a medium lower on the cultural pecking order than video games. Even as a self-confessed hardcore gamer, I find it hard to argue with this general assumption. Storytelling in games is often little more than an afterthought, something used to paper over the cracks as game designers desperately try to crowbar together action set piece after action set piece.
Modern games offer us fantastic worlds to explore, cutting edge graphics and complex yet intuitive gameplay. So why is it that as soon as they try to put one word after another the whole thing falls apart? Can the games industry simply not attract talented writers, or are there other factors at work here?
